Four beaming Bride and Grooms said ‘I Do’ on Thursday, in Las Vegas style drive-through weddings, hosted by ride hailing app FREE NOW who went through its own recent unification with former London ride hailing app, Kapten. Ceremonies were held at Arnold Circus in East London where couples were collected and driven by FREE NOW to a bandstand where they exchanged personalised vows in front of a celebrant and guests.

A recent study out this year revealed that coronavirus will directly impact up to 64 per cent of weddings in 2020 either by postponements, cancellations or travel logistics*. With many couples struggling to reorganise their original wedding plans and cover losses, Brits have been on the lookout for new and creative ways in which they can tie the knot, and with the drive-through weddings announced only last week, the number of eager couples signing up proved that Brits are ready to get back down the aisle after lockdown and start celebrating once again.

The four lucky couples who entered to win a Drive-through wedding and who were chosen at random, each started their day waking up at The Hoxton Hotel in Shoreditch. From there they were collected in FREE NOW vehicles decorated specially for the day – white Prius for the bride and black cab for the groom – and transported to their wedding destination.

THE COUPLES

Jahanzeb Khan & Fatima Bajwa have a familiar story. A wedding ceremony planned in March that they had been desperately looking forward to before COVID struck and all their plans were sadly cancelled. Their wedding funds had been chipped away at since March and the likelihood that they would have to delay for longer than intended was turning into a reality. Until Jahanzeb saw the chance to enter into the FREE NOW drive-through wedding and applied immediately to surprise Fatima.

Lucie Hacq & Charles Langevin had plans to get married this September in France, it just wasn’t meant to be. With the pandemic and travel restrictions they sadly had to cancel their wedding. They applied for the FREE NOW drive-through wedding to help lift their spirits and give them something to celebrate this year.

Francesca Stokes & Peter Lipton are a couple who were due to get married on 25th April. Like many other Brits they chose to postpone their wedding and move it to the back end of the year. With recent new measures put in place it is unlikely their second wedding date will go ahead. They are desperate to get married in the least stressful way possible and had even considered eloping to Las Vegas before seeing the news on the FREE NOW drive-through weddings.

Sara Martin & Jonny Johnson nominated themselves and are an incredibly deserving couple. Having already gone through the stress of cancelling their wedding last year due to Sara battling breast cancer, they have then had to go through it all again this year and cancel once more due to COVID. They signed up for the drive-through wedding knowing it would be good fun.

Brides and Grooms were dressed to impress in their varying wedding attire. To complete the look, the brides each accessorised their wedding outfits with a bouquet of blooming flowers that were collected on route from a bespoke, floral covered wedding kiosk, while grooms were complete with boutonnieres. Handed to them through the windows of the cars, each bride was then officially signed up for their drive-through ceremony, before being finally driven to the last stop and drop-off point.

Taking it in turns throughout the day, couples were dropped off at the foot of the stairs to the bandstand on Arnold Circus. Grooms got out first and made their way up the stairs to meet the humanist celebrant, Zena Birch. A song specially chosen by each couple was then played as the bride got out, taking her turn to walk up the ‘aisle’. Each personalized ceremony lasted around 15 minutes, after which couples signed a FREE NOW certificate documenting their wedding, enjoyed some champagne, wedding cake and photos, before making their way along for the next drive-through wedding.

Toasting the occasion, guests of the happy couples stuck to strict Government guidelines, each wearing masks and staying socially distanced from one another. All guests on the day were driven to and from the ceremony in black cabs provided by FREE NOW.